The Quick and Dirty Troubleshooting Guide to fixing the Internet
If you have read my post NIC – Who’s That you should have a real basic understanding of what the NIC is. Let us now figure out how to troubleshoot it and your network. It is a cold Sunday afternoon in February, but you do not worry. You are nice and warm in your house with your face painted two different colors as you are watching the Super Bowl. During one of the thousands of beer ads you jump online to find some video footage of the play you just saw and bam, nothing. You have lost your Internet connection.
Now it is Sunday night and you are ready to look into that connection. Your geek of a friend tells you it is probably your NIC, you say, yah I’ll call Nick. I have to stop this story and tell you something…pay attention! NIC is a Network Interface Card, and it may not be your problem.
The first thing you need to do is to get down on your hands and knees and crawl under your desk. Don’t worry about the “trying to advance your carrier jokes”, I fix computers for a living and get a hundred a day. While under your desk look on the back of your computer for a cable that goes into a jack similar, but slightly bigger than a phone jack. Once you spot this insure the cable is securely in the jack. Insure there are lights lighting up alongside the jack.
If you see flashing lights that is good. If the lights are solid that is good, if it is the data light. If you do not see any lights lighting up that is bad. The flashing is moving data, and on modern networks data is moving so fast the data transfer light stays solid. If you see no lights that is a sign that the NIC is not connected to the network. This means one of three things; your network is down, your NIC is broke, or your cables are not connected properly.
You have already checked the cable on the back, now insure that the other end of that cable is in the right jack and plugged in correctly on your hub or router. Usually you can plug your cable into any port on a router or hub except the upload port. Routers and hubs have an upload port that needs to be used for incoming traffic, like the Internet. Check the literature that came with your router or hub for other information on your upload port.
Now check the connection between your router and your high speed access modem (router). For anyone who is using only high speed access and not running a network with a firewall check the connection between your PC and the high speed access modem (router). Now everyone check the connection between the high speed access modem (router) and the wall.
Now if there is any cable I missed check it. Now that all the cables are checked see if you have access. If you are running Windows XP or 2000 your PC will find the connection automatically. If all this did not work there is a good chance you broke the Internet (just kidding)
Also get back under your desk at this point and see if any of the NIC lights are lighting up. If they are not there is a good chance your NIC may be bad. Don’t worry they are cheep. A good one should cost you under $25.
Wow this is getting long. If you are at this point and you still have no Internet, reset everything. Start by shutting down all the PC’s on your network. Than unplug all your routers and modems. At this point you need to read the setup for all routers and modems to insure you start things right.
Most likely you need to first plug in your Internet modem (router), than your router, than power up your PC. Once everything is powered on give it a few minutes and all should be OK. If it is not you will have to wait until I write a more extensive blog on fixing your Internet connection.
Rundown: Connection from wall to high speed access modem (router). From high speed access modem (router) to your router. From your router to NIC. Any one of these pieces can and the cables can break along the way.
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POSTED IN: Hardware, PC Repair Training
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